Ethan Dodd – Visual Artist. Cardiff, Wales

April 29, 2015

Tutorial; 28/04/15

I had my first tutorial in a month yesterday, and after reading my feedback form, I seem to be missing out on the skills side of my work. I’m not sure if this is because I lost the feedback form from that weeks tutorial, but I will assume that I need a lot of work on my skills side in order to get the grade that I want. I have also begun to think about how I can take this’tumour’ idea further, and have begun to make larger and ‘cleaner’ plates, in a variety of squares and circles, in order to give my tumours the sensation that they are ‘ethereal’, stark in contrast to the pure whiteness of the porcelain that they are created upon. I have also thought about another idea related to ceramics, and that is the Japanese method of ‘kintsugi’; in which broken pots are fixed with glue mixed with gold dust. I have ideas of making a series of pots, that are smashed, and I attempt to fix, as a comment on life and death, and the inevitability of death, despite our best efforts to prolong it with diets and medicine. I want to try this in order to develop my skills, as well as explore a concept of fixing, and helping an object to exist beyond a fall; much like Icarus, or those who are afflicted with cancer and learn to live with the disease.